H1Z1 Will Launch On PS4 After PC Release

Sony Online Entertainment has made it known that not only will H1Z1 – the open-world zombie survival game – make an appearance on the PlayStation 4, but it will arrive on Sony's console after the PC version of the title has been released. While that may seem like good news, there are a still a few caveats that prevent the news from being as good as you might be thinking.

GameZone managed to get in word with SOE president John Smedley, where they asked what was up with the PS4 version of the game following confirmation that the game would be arriving on the console, and here's what Smedley had to say...

“It's PC first, only because we haven't started on the PS4 version,” … “The PlanetSide 2 engine, the version of Forgelight, and H1Z1 are identical. So the reason we're waiting is that H1Z1 -- 80 percent of the works is going to be done by launching PlanetSide 2 because all of the PlayStation 4 specific stuff will have been taken care of with the engine. Porting H1Z1 over after that will take a few months.”

Most games ported to the PS4 usually only take a few months, such as Warframe or Don't Starve. So it's good news that H1Z1 will be utilizing an engine pipeline that will allow it to make the jump in a rather short span of time. Of course, this is all dependent on a couple of factors that still remains a mystery, such as when will H1Z1 launch on PC? And at what point of the PC build will the game be eligible for release on the PS4?

GameZone noted that H1Z1 is definitely fun, but certainly in no condition for release on Sony's home console.

Additionally, the zombie-survival title will need to follow behind Planetside 2's PS4 release, and we still don't know exactly when that will be, other than that it's sometime in 2014.

On the bright side, SOE did reveal a brand new feature for the open-world title: airdrops.

Mweb.co.za spotted the new trailer for the upcoming update, which will see players battling to take control of the supply drops. Check it out below.

As noted in the article, so long as the drops are truly random and the locations aren't fixed this could be one of the coolest features in the game. It seemed to work well for the other mutant-zombie survival game, Nether.

Right now it looks like SOE is trying to throw in everything but the kitchen sink to get H1Z1 up to a competitive level with the standalone of Dean “Rocket” Hall's DayZ “alpher”. Depending on how polished the game is and how much content is available for emergent, original player stories will determine its overall success; being free-to-play won't hurt either.